The present invention relates generally to digital video distribution and playback systems and in particular to digital video distribution and playback systems providing enhanced playback control.
The digital video revolution is evolving from a physical-media distribution model to electronic-media distribution models that utilize Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and Consumer Grade Networks (CGNs—such as residential Internet and in-home networks) for delivery of content to devices. The utilization of the Advanced Video Coding (AVC/H.264) standard is prevalent in today's optical and broadcast industries, but the adoption of this standard at bit-rates suitable for CDN/CGN distribution has not yet materialized in a unified and open specification for resolutions including full-HD (1080p) video.
Digital video formats however are typically designed to efficiently support playback of content. Other common user functions are typically supported through increased player complexity (and therefore cost) or the performance of the other functions is compromised, limiting the quality of the user-experience.
For example, visual-search through digitally encoded multimedia files is typically performed by displaying only the key-frames (aka intra-frames) of the relevant video stream. The key-frames are displayed for a time corresponding to the speed of the visual search being performed by the user and some may be skipped when a high search speed is requested. Alternate methods may decode all or parts of the video stream at higher rates and display selective frames to visually increase the presentation speed. These methods for visual-search may deliver a poor visual experience to the user due to the coarseness and inconsistency of the temporal difference between displayed images. Complicating matters even more is that devices operate differently depending on whether visual-search is performed in the forward or reverse direction. Finally, devices may require the video stream to be read at speeds that are multiple times higher than the standard rate required to playback the video in normal speed, challenging the device's subsystems.
Similarly, other typical functions performed or required to be performed during a playback session with a single or with multiple titles of content can often be limited in their ability to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience to the user.